Very sticky hive problem

[KiwiLad]

I'm asking because washing soda is proving damned hard to find here.

Just discovered how to convert baking soda to washing soda by heating to 400F for an hour or so. Problem solved.

 

[KiwiLad]

washing liquid won't do it by itself

At the risk of seeming a pedant, to say nothing of a grumpy old man, what a difference a well-placed comma or two makes for accurate comprehension...

"This can be made up using 1 kg of washing soda to 5 litres of warm water with a dash of washing up liquid to help clean off propolis."
vs
"This can be made up using 1 kg of washing soda to 5 litres of warm water, with a dash of washing up liquid, to help clean off propolis."

 

[Erichalfbee]

...................washing soda is proving damned hard to find here.

Can you not buy sodium carbonate from an internet source anywhere?

 

[B+.]

At the risk of seeming a pedant, to say nothing of a grumpy old man...

Quite often, both of these attributes are required to be a beekeeper.

 

[KiwiLad]

Can you not buy sodium carbonate from an internet source anywhere?

I'm sure it can be easily done, but to be cost effective I'd probably have to buy a quantity far in excess of my low levels of use.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At the risk of seeming a pedant, to say nothing of a grumpy old man,

Quite often, both of these attributes are required to be a beekeeper.

Better than being a pederast and a dirty old man I suppose

 

[Arfermo]

One of my hives is a pain to inspect due to amount of propolis everywhere - far more than I have ever experienced before. Lifting the frames eventually means I sometimes have to stop and scrape/wipe some off. It was split this year with a very productive new Q. Any remedy considered before next March please. Re-queen comes to mind which would be a real shame.

 

[pargyle]

One of my hives is a pain to inspect due to amount of propolis everywhere - far more than I have ever experienced before. Lifting the frames eventually means I sometimes have to stop and scrape/wipe some off. It was split this year with a very productive new Q. Any remedy considered before next March please. Re-queen comes to mind which would be a real shame.

My colony that propolised for England continues (through two generations of queen) to propolise like mad ...I leave their inspection to the end and accept that, by the time I've done, my gloves and anything else will be covered in it. The disposable nitriles go in the bin and everything else goes into the tub of washing soda ... they are nice bees but they just seem to like propolis. You just have to balance whether the colonies other attributes warrant putting up with the inconvenience of propolis.

 

[Arfermo]

My colony that propolised for England continues (through two generations of queen) to propolise like mad ...I leave their inspection to the end and accept that, by the time I've done, my gloves and anything else will be covered in it. The disposable nitriles go in the bin and everything else goes into the tub of washing soda ... they are nice bees but they just seem to like propolis. You just have to balance whether the colonies other attributes warrant putting up with the inconvenience of propolis.

Genetic trait then? Only remedy is new Q from elsewhere - frame of eggs from a cleaner outfit methinks?

 

[masterBK]

After a good clean up vaseline all contact services like runners, contact edges of hoffmans etc Makes getting the frames out much easier. Also wooden bits of framed excluders.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Genetic trait then? Only remedy is new Q from elsewhere - frame of eggs from a cleaner outfit methinks?

Why 'cleaner'? propolis is a natural antimicrobial. Tom Seeley has written a lot about bee health and recommends encouraging them to propolise rather than spend hours scraping it off

 

[pargyle]

Genetic trait then? Only remedy is new Q from elsewhere - frame of eggs from a cleaner outfit methinks?

Yes ... I reckon so. I only have the one colony that is like this ... they do stick everthing to everything. I've tried the vaseline trick and to some extent it works but I think they either clean off the vaseline or incorporate it into the propolis. I've often considered harvesting propolis from this colony using a propolis screen as I do use it for making my propolis varnish but it means forcing the bees to seal up the top of the hive where the screen is and that puts me off. I do get a fair bit just from the scrapings off the frames.

 

[bobthecob]

Spreading propolis around is a hygienic trait. I have a colony like this. It's a bit of a pain, but I admire their diligence and I suspect it helps the health of the hive. Certainly wouldn't requeen.

Presumably your crownboard provides a space above the frames? If not, and if this is making the propolis worse, you could switch crownboards to one that does.

 

[pargyle]

Spreading propolis around is a hygienic trait. I have a colony like this. It's a bit of a pain, but I admire their diligence and I suspect it helps the health of the hive. Certainly wouldn't requeen.

Presumably your crownboard provides a space above the frames? If not, and if this is making the propolis worse, you could switch crownboards to one that does.

Yes .. I run top bee space but they deposit propolis everywhere .. they stick the frames together, they stick the frames to the frame rails, they propolise every joint between the boxes and the crownboard gets stuck to the top of the hive .. their creativity with the stuff knows no bounds ...

 

[Swarm]

'Sticky Vicky' was one of my nicest Queens, the inside of the hive looked like a Tequila Sunrise, pools of ruby red 'treacle' between frame lugs. Fantastic smell, I don't mind propolis at all.
Plus it keeps the hive "antiseptically clean, you gotta know what I mean".

 

[user 819]

Scrape off the propolis and store in a container and sell it, 50g batches are well worth selling if ebay is anything to go by.

 

[Arfermo]

Surely top or bottom space makes no difference. It's worst around the QE I find. I'm all for any necessary hygiene but my hive overdoes it quite a bit imo. Gotta go!!

 

[Swarm]

You said earlier 'which is a shame'. I'm guessing a good queen with nice bees?
You can't possibly have more propolis than Vicky had and those bees were so gorgeous I'd forgive them anything. I gave up trying to scrape frames, used to squidge them back together. Do this colony last?

 

[joelsoo]

hey i saved up a container full of propolis/wax scrapings when i clean my frames and hive boxes, however they are slightly contaminated with abit of wax and some wood shavings, any way to filter/seperate it to pure propolis?

 

[madasafish]

Propolis dissolves in alcohol.
So any hand sanitiser using alcohol will clean gloves and hands...(I bought some last year after a top from a fellow beekeeper.. useful when sanitiser was unavailable in early Covid.)